{"id":11686,"date":"2013-08-12T16:22:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T16:22:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-08-12T16:22:42","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T16:22:42","slug":"the_diminishing_of_the_presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/08\/12\/the_diminishing_of_the_presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"The Diminishing of the Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: While we\u2019re on the subject, have you heard about this thing that happened at the Missouri state fair? “Missouri State Fair officials and politicians on Sunday condemned the performance of a rodeo clown who donned a mask resembling President Barack Obama <\/a>during Saturday\u00c2\u2019s bull riding competition.” Apparently the clown\u2019s name, Perry Beam, rodeo clown, wore an Obama mask during the bull riding at the Missouri state fair, which is in Sedalia. “A tempest over the incident erupted after a website reported a Facebook account of it. The Facebook writer said he had taken a Taiwanese student –” (laughing) — it\u2019s sad, funny, it\u2019s a whole bunch of things. The way we\u2019re grouping ourselves. So yeah, yeah, yeah, a Facebook writer had taken a Taiwanese student to the rodeo in Sedalia Saturday night and during the bull riding segment a rodeo clown appeared wearing an Obama mask. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t all the. “The announcer wanted to know if anyone would like to see Obama run down by a bull.” This was what was posted on Facebook. And it is also reported on Facebook that the crowd went wild. So the announcer asked it again and again, louder every time, whipping the audience into a lather, “Anybody like to see Obama run down by a bull?” This caused the governor of Missouri and the lieutenant governor of Missouri and Senator Claire McCaskill to express outrage and shock and sadness and venom over how this could possibly happen. <\/p>\n

Who would do this? Why was the crowd going nuts? This is absolutely embarrassing. This is intolerable. This is unacceptable. Who do these people think they are? Why would anybody put on an Obama mask as a clown, and why would the announcer ask if anybody wanted the Obama clown run over by a bunch of bulls, and why would the audience cheer this? <\/p>\n

And it was just last week on this program where I — with some weight and seriousness — and it\u2019s not an Oprah comment on the weight. I mean, it was heavy — talked about Obama going on a comedy show to tell us something very serious about foreign policy, and I said this is diminishing the office of the presidency, the way Obama\u2019s handling this, just totally diminishing it. He is reducing the office to the lowest common denominator, and I would suggest to you that whatever the truth of this thing is in Missouri, the clown putting on the Obama mask, is representative of the fact that there is a declining overall respect for the office of the presidency. <\/p>\n

When the president of the United States more often than not connects with the American people on late-night comedy shows, what else can happen, other than the diminishing of the office, which takes me to audio sound bite number one. This is yesterday on CNN, Fareed Zakaria: GPS. He interviewed former newspaper publisher Conrad Black<\/a>, who, by the way, is the interviewee in the current issue of the Limbaugh Letter<\/a>. Well, I know. If these Missouri politicians ever find out what the Egyptian protesters are doing to Obama\u2019s image, I mean, he\u2019s being burned in effigy over there. Wait \u2019til the governor and lieutenant governor of Missouri find out what\u2019s happening to Obama in Egypt, they\u2019re gonna really be mad. <\/p>\n

(interruption)<\/p>\n

Well, yeah, Arab Spring, I mean, Obama claimed that as his own, and of course it\u2019s not working out for the Egyptian people at all. Anyway, Fareed Zakaria: GPS. Does that mean he does the show from his car? I don\u2019t understand the name of that show, Fareed Zakaria: GPS. Does he do it on his phone? Do they go to the map app and plan the route of the interview? What is that? Oh, you need a GPS to find Fareed\u2019s show. That\u2019s what it is, that\u2019s what it is. You need a GPS to find Fareed Zakaria: GPS. Okay. <\/p>\n

So Conrad Black, who\u2019s the current interviewee in the Limbaugh Letter, he has a great book, Flight of the Eagle, about the birth of this country and how and why it became what it is, in some people\u2019s minds was. And Fareed Zakaria accused Conrad Black of dismissing in this book President Obama. And Conrad Black, who is a brilliant — I mean, if you\u2019ve ever wondered what an intellectual is, I mean, somebody that has not soiled the term, it would be Conrad. Conrad is a genuine, likable, affectionate, if you will, intellectual. He\u2019s not a stuffed shirt, hoity-toity elitist type. He\u2019s a good guy. <\/p>\n